Munster must find a fork in the road ahead
There is a common theme running through the five successive defeats that has derailed Munster’s season entering the new year, and unless it is addressed soon, then qualification for next season’s Champions Cup will be threatened for the first time since the advent of the original tournament 20 years ago.
It must be difficult to be a Munster forward at present. In the vast majority of the games they have lost recently, specifically those back-to-back encounters against Leicester and the Leinster game last Sunday, Munster have dominated both possession and territory to such a degree they could be on a five-game winning streak.
Time and again, however, Munster have been so wasteful in possession, it is getting embarrassing. Straightforward penalty kicks at goal are being missed, try-scoring opportunities are being squandered due to poor decision-making and flawed link play. Add in the number of unforced errors — 10 knock-ons against Leinster alone — and you have a recipe for disaster.
Despite reasonable competency at the set-piece however, the forwards are far from blameless and equally culpable when it comes to making unforced errors and turning over possession. Those mistakes drain the life out of any side and Munster are facing a crisis of confidence at present.
The other recurring issue surrounds the ball presentation in contact, with the ball carrier left isolated far too easily. That opens the door for the opposition to poach and generate turnovers or penalties for not releasing, as happened so frequently against Leinster. Support for the ball carrier is arriving far too slow.
Serious questions need to be addressed. Was Tyler Bleyendaal fit to play against Leinster? It certainly didn’t appear so. He is a better player than the flawed version we saw in Thomond Park last Sunday evening.
How can an out-half only kick the ball once in the 60 minutes he was on the field? Rory Scannell was asked to undertake all the basic kicking duties including line kicks from penalties, restarts, kicks at goal as well as slotting in as first receiver off set plays to kick to touch.
Even Bleyendaal’s solitary kick, that crossfield effort in the second half, was poorly executed. He has been carrying an adductor/groin problem — a kicker’s injury — for some time, and didn’t appear to have any confidence in his ability to deliver from the boot.
Scannell is a very promising young talent and showed impressive inner strength in not allowing a poor missed penalty kick from in front of the posts in the early stages of the game impact on his overall performance. He is also an accomplished distributor and has earned the right to a run of games, either at out-half or inside centre.
Of bigger concern is Munster’s inability to generate scores when camped in the opposition 22. That was a hallmark of this team right up to last season but not anymore. Even the traditional banker, the lineout maul, a consistent generator of five pointers, has lost its potency at present. Players are forcing things and trying too hard, and that is only adding to the error count.
The current Pro12 table has Munster sitting in sixth place with a game more played than Glasgow Warriors in seventh. If the Warriors account for Leinster at home in Scotstoun in that rescheduled game, then Munster fall outside the qualification zone.
With in-form Ulster next up in Belfast and back-to-back encounters against Stade Francais in Europe immediately after that, Munster need to fix those recurring issues pretty quickly. Something has to change.
There are games in every season that help a side turn a corner and dig themselves out of a hole, and I have a feeling Leinster reached that point in Limerick.
The fact that they are already out of Europe offers clarity and Leo Cullen can now focus all his energies on the Guinness Pro12. At this stage, I see them as a great bet to win it outright. With 20 players at the World Cup, quality isn’t a problem for them. Reintegrating all of those players was always going to be an issue but they have reached that point now.
In addition, and of greater value to their long-term development, the period when those players were away on international duty has been utilised to blood a clutch of young players with the capacity to backbone Leinster’s future.
Chief amongst those are Josh van der Flier, Garry Ringrose, Luke McGrath and James Tracy. Others to impress include second row Ross Molony — already a better option than Tom Denton. Leinster have a conveyor belt of promising talent exiting their schools system annually that Munster simply can’t match, on the basis of pure numbers alone. Cullen now has some serious selection dilemmas to address.
With Ben Te’o leaving at the end of the season, no more time should be wasted on the elevation of Ringrose. Having watched him closely for the last two seasons with the Irish U20 side, it is clear that this guy is a special talent. Even in defeat, I found it difficult not to select him as the man of the match when covering those games for RTÉ.
Even more encouraging were the comments from Cullen after the Munster game. “He is somebody who works incredibly hard. It comes down to the preparation you put in from day to day and he is somebody who epitomises that.”
All the top players have a work ethic second to none. Without it, you won’t maximise the natural talent that is so obvious in the case of Ringrose. He needs to be let off the leash now.
The other striking point to emerge from the Thomond derby for me is that Joe Schmidt has a natural successor to Paul O’Connell as Ireland captain in Sean O’Brien.
ACTION SHOT: great to have the big man back! #TullowTank #MUNvLEIN pic.twitter.com/vduBehlyGq
— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) December 27, 2015
The fact that he hasn’t captained many sides in the past is irrelevant, for me. Martin Johnson didn’t captain England before being handed that role for the Lions tour to South Africa in 1997.
O’Brien has presence and is the type of player that not only inspires others but is someone who any player would want to follow into battle. In that, he is closest in stature to O’Connell and is the type of inspirational figure that every Irish side needs. I would have Rory Best and Johnny Sexton as his two vice-captains.
I don’t see his lack of experience in the role as a barrier, as every side now has players entrusted with the responsibility of running the key segments of play such as the scrum, lineout, defence etc.
Sexton has enough on his plate and Jamie Heaslip faces stiff competition for the first time in his career, even if he came out on top in his personal duel with CJ Stander last Sunday.
Stander is a really impressive individual and has given everything to the Munster cause. He is carrying the weight of Munster’s woes on his broad shoulders at present and Peter O’Mahony’s influence is sorely missed when the side takes to the field.
Munster have a hard road to travel.
